Ferguson: Veterans in politics
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
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Screen’s prize clam is Mr. George Sanders
But as he explains it these movie ‘mags’ print blah stuff
By Ernest Foster
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The people must know –
OWI performs vital job for U.S. public, publisher declares
America needs it to get out the news, to prevent confusion, and to coordinate the home front
By Palmer Hoyt
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Italy – (by wireless)
Buck Eversole is a platoon sergeant in an infantry company. That means he has charge of about 40 frontline fighting men.
He has been at the front for more than a year. War is old to him and he has become almost the master of it. He is a senior partner now in the institution of death.
His platoon has turned over many times as battle whittles down the old ones and the replacement system brings up the new ones. Only a handful now are veterans.
In his slow, barely audible Western voice, so full of honesty and sincerity, Buck told me one night:
It gets so it kinda gets you, seein’ these new kids come up.
Some of them have just got fuzz on their faces, and don’t know what it’s all about, and they’re scared to death. No matter what, some of them are bound to get killed.
We talked about some of the other old-time noncoms who could take battle themselves, but had gradually grown morose under the responsibility of leading green boys to their slaughter. Buck spoke of one sergeant especially, a brave and hardened man, who went to his captain and asked him to be reduced to a private in the lines.
Buck finally said:
I know it ain’t my fault that they get killed. And I do the best I can for them, but I’ve got so I feel like a murder. I hate to look at them when the new ones come in.
Buck and Nazi play house
Buck himself has been fortunate. Once he was shot through the arm. His own skill and wisdom have saved him many times, but luck has saved him countless other times.
One night Buck and an officer took refuge from shelling in a two-room Italian stone house. As they sat there, a shall came through the wall of the far room, crossed the room and buried itself in the middle wall with its nose pointing upward. It didn’t go off.
Another time Buck was leading his platoon on a night attack. They were walking in Indian file. Suddenly a mine went off, and killed the entire squad following Buck. He himself had miraculously walked through the minefield without hitting a one.
One day Buck went stalking a German officer in close combat, and wound up with the German on one side of a farmhouse and Buck on the other. They kept throwing grenades over the house at each other without success.
Finally, Buck stepped around one corner of the house, and came face to face with the German, who’d had the same idea.
Buck was ready and pulled the trigger first. His slug hit the German just above the heart. The German had a wonderful pair of binoculars slung over his shoulders, and the bullet smashed them to bits. Buck had wanted some German binoculars for a long time.
Fraternity of peril
The ties that grow up between men who live savagely and die relentlessly together are ties of great strength. There is a sense of fidelity to each other among little corps of men who have endured so long and whose hope in the end can be but so small.
One afternoon while I was with the company Sgt. Buck Eversole’s turn came to go back to rest camp for five days. The company was due to attack that night.
Buck went to his company commander and said:
Lieutenant, I don’t think I better go. I’ll stay if you need me.
The lieutenant said:
Of course I need you, Buck, I always need you. But it’s your turn and I want you to go. In fact, you’re ordered to go.
The truck taking the few boys away to rest camp left just at dusk. It was drizzling and the valleys were swathed in a dismal mist. Artillery of both sides flashed and rumbled around the horizon. The encroaching darkness was heavy and foreboding.
Buck came to the little group of old-timers in the company with whom I was standing, to say goodbye. You’d have thought he was leaving forever. He shook hands all around, and his smile seemed sick and vulnerable. He was a man stalling off his departure.
He said, “Well, good luck to you all.” And then he said, “I’ll be back in just five days.”
I walked with him toward the truck in the dusk. He kept his eyes on the ground, and I think he would have cried if he knew how, and he said to me very quietly:
This is the first battle I’ve ever missed that this battalion has been in. even when I was in the hospital with my arm they were in bivouac. This will be the first one I’ve ever missed. I sure do hope they have good luck.
And then he said:
I feel like a deserter.
He climbed in, and the truck dissolved into the blackness. I went back and lay down on the ground among my other friends waiting for the night orders to march. I lay there in the darkness thinking – terribly touched by the great simple devotion of this soldier who was a cowboy – and thinking of the millions far away at home who must remain forever unaware of the powerful fraternalism in the ghastly brotherhood of war.
Joan Barry’s new attorney wants ‘baby day in court’
Shouldn’t put infant ‘in baseball game with two strikes on her,’ lawyer says
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Völkischer Beobachter (February 23, 1944)
Die einzige Chance der Anglo-Amerikaner –
Suche nach schwachen Punkten
dnb. Berlin, 22. Februar –
Die US-Soldatenzeitung Stars and Stripes schildert in einem Bericht ihres Sonderkorrespondenten Milton Lehmann die gewaltigen Schwierigkeiten, denen die alliierten Truppen in Italien begegnen. Der Wirrwarr der hohen Berge stellt eines der besten natürlichen Verteidigungssysteme dar und die Deutschen wissen es meisterhaft auszunutzen. Der amerikanische Kriegsberichter sieht die einzige Chance der Anglo-Amerikaner darin, daß sie lernen, schwache Punkte herauszufinden, nachdem sie begriffen hatten, wie gut die Deutschen ihren Empfang vorbereitet haben.
Ein anderer Berichterstatter der Stars and Stripes spricht voll Anerkennung über das Verhalten der deutschen Truppen in Neapel vor der Besetzung durch die Amerikaner. Er wundert sich darüber, daß die ersten Amerikaner, die nach Neapel kamen, dort noch zahlreiche schöne Dinge kaufen konnten, zum Beispiel hübsche Taschenuhren, Sweater, Stoffe und seidene Strümpfe. „Ich kenne einen Offizier, der 50 Paar kaufte zu 1,50 Dollar.“ Auch die Spirituosen seien erst von den Amerikanern ausgekauft worden. Die Deutschen haben durch strenge Preisüberwachung den Markt gesteuert. Von Italienern hat der US-Berichterstatter zu hören bekommen, daß die Deutschen nicht so andenkensüchtig gewesen seien, wie die Amerikaner und auch keine Juwelen und Schmuck zu kaufen pflegten.
Telegram from President Roosevelt to Alben Barkley
February 23, 1944
Dear Alben:
As I am out of the City I am unable to have a personal talk with you. If I were there, of course, that is the first thing I would do.
I regret to learn from your speech in the Senate on the tax veto that you thought I had in my message attacked the integrity of yourself and other members of the Congress. Such you must know was not my intention. You and I may differ, and have differed on important measures, but that does not mean we question one another’s good faith.
In working together to achieve common objectives we have always tried to accommodate our views so as not to offend the other whenever we could conscientiously do so. But neither of us can expect the other to go further.
When on last Monday I read to you portions of my tax message and you indicated your disagreement, I made certain changes as a result of our talk. You did not however try to alter my basic decision when you realized how strongly I felt about it. While I did not realize how very strongly you felt about that basic decision, had I known, I should not have tried to dissuade you from exercising your own judgment in urging the overriding of the veto.
I sincerely hope that you will not persist in your announced intention to resign as Majority Leader of the Senate. If you do, however, I hope your colleagues will not accept your resignation; but if they do, I sincerely hope that they will immediately and unanimously reelect you.
With the many serious problems daily confronting us, it is inevitable that at times you should differ with your colleagues and differ with me. I am sure that your differing with your colleagues does not lessen their confidence in you as Leader. Certainly, your differing with me does not affect my confidence in your leadership nor in any degree lessen my respect and affection for you personally.
U.S. Navy Department (February 23, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 40
The conquest of Eniwetok Atoll was completed on the evening of February 22 (West Longitude Date) with the capture of Parry Island. The enemy garrison which defended the atoll is estimated at 3,000.
A strong Pacific Fleet Task Force, including several hundred carrier-based aircraft, struck Saipan and Tinian Islands in the Mariana Group, on February 22 (West Longitude Date). Further details are not now available.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 276
For Immediate Release
February 23, 1944
Enemy‑held positions in the Caroline and Marshall Islands were attacked by aircraft of the Seventh Army Air Force and search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two during February 21 and 22 (West Longitude Date).
On February 21, Army Liberators dropped 30 tons of bombs on Ponape and bombed Kusaie twice with a total of 6 tons of bombs. Fires were started in the harbor areas of both targets. Nauru Island was also bombed by a Navy search Ventura.
On the same date, Army Mitchell bombers, Warhawk fighters and Navy search planes struck five enemy‑held Marshall Atolls, hitting ground installations, airfields and shipping.
On February 22, Army Warhawk fighters twice attacked a single enemy-held atoll in the Marshall Group, strafing small vessels in the harbor and bombing the airfield.
None of our planes was lost.
On February 21, an atoll in the Eastern Marshalls, which is still occupied by the enemy was bombarded by ships of the Pacific Fleet.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 23, 1944)
YANKS HIT PLANE PLANTS IN AUSTRIA
Raiders bag 133 planes
Mediterranean fliers make 1,000-mile roundtrip over Alps after attack costing 61 bombers
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
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BARKLEY QUITS; ROOSEVELT IN REVOLT OVER TAX BILL
Leader of Senate resigns his post
Congress expected to override President after Kentuckian denounces message as filled with ‘unfairness’
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‘My cup runneth over’ –
Barkley shuns reelection, implies he has had enough
And as for running for the Senate again, Kentuckian merely shrugs his shoulders
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Germans mass on Rome front
Prepare for third attempt to crush beachhead
By Robert Vermillion, United Press staff writer
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